Milvago carbo Suárez & Olson, 2003

Suárez, William, 2022, Catalogue of Cuban fossil and subfossil birds, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 142 (1), pp. 247-248 : 53-54

31. † Milvago carbo Suárez & Olson, 2003

Cuban Caracara (Caraira Cubana)

Milvago carbo Suárez & Olson, 2003c , Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 116: 302.

Holotype.—Near-complete right tarsometatarsus, MNHNCu 75.4569, formerly P4569 ( Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302, fig. 1: A [anterior], B [medial], C [posterior]; see Herrera-Uria et al. 2015: 114–115, not ‘P456’ [lapsus calami] as appears in Díaz-Franco 2004: 157). Collected in San Felipe II during expeditions conducted in 1998 by the Depto. de Geología y Paleontología, MNHNCu [= Stephen Díaz Franco, Manuel Iturralde Vinent and Reinaldo Rojas Consuegra. Not ‘W. Suárez, and S. Díaz-Franco’ as indicated by Herrera-Uria et al. 2015: 115. See Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000: 301] ( Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302).

Other material.— Notarium: fragmentary, MNHNCu 75.4567. Tibiotarsus: distal ends of left, MNHNCu 75.4568, MNHNCu 75.4570–4571. Tarsometatarsus: proximal half of left without part of inner and outer calcaneal ridges, MNHNCu 75.4572; shaft of left, MNHNCu 75.4573; proximal end of right, MNHNCu 75.4574; distal halves of right, MNHNCu 75.4575–4576 (latter with abrasion); distal ends of left, MNHNCu 75.4577–4578. See Suárez & Olson (2003c: 303), Díaz-Franco (2004: 157), Herrera-Uria et al. (2015: 115).

Type locality.—Las Breas de San Felipe ( MLB), c. 5.5 km west of the town of Martí, San Felipe Valley, municipality of Martí, Matanzas province, Cuba ( Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302–303; for description of this deposit see Iturralde-Vinent et al. 2000). Fig. 5.

Distribution.—Asphalt deposits in west Cuba (see Appendix). Matanzas. Martí: MLB ( Suárez & Olson 2003c: 302–303, Suárez 2020a: 35–36).

Direct 14 C dating .—None. For dating of other bird species at the type locality, see Antigone cubensis , Gymnogyps varonai and Ornimegalonyx oteroi , and of associated extinct mammals ( Parocnus browni = 11,880 ± 420 to 4,960 ± 280 years 14 C BP), see Jull et al. (2004) and Steadman et al. (2005).

Notes.—Very rare, known only from tar seeps in west Cuba. The largest representative of the genus Milvago , living or extinct ( Suárez & Olson 2003c, Suárez 2020a). The smaller taxon recorded as Milvago sp. (see below) by Suárez & Arredondo (1997: 101) is not a synonym of the much larger M. carbo (contra Kirkconnell et al. 2020: table 4).